There are two therapeutic approaches in the care of newborns. The infants are placed into so-called incubators in case of closed nursing care. These can offer an environment tailored to the infant's needs with moist, warm and possibly even oxygen-enriched air. The patient space of the incubator comprises a reclining surface on a platform, which is surrounded by side walls. A hood closes the patient area upwardly. To reach the infant, so-called hand ports can be opened in the side walls, or even a complete side wall can be folded down if needed.
The second therapeutic approach provides for placing the premature infant into open nursing care beds, which make it possible to warm the infant by heating radiators. These warming beds offer easier access to the infant for the nursing care staff compared to the closed incubators. The side walls protecting the infant from falling out typically have a height of 150 mm, so that the nursing care staff can reach into the device over the side walls. The side walls of an incubator are typically higher, because a certain volume of air is needed within the incubator and to make better access to the infant possible with the side walls open.
The incubator and warming bed device types are combined with one another in so-called hybrid devices. To pass over from closed nursing care to open nursing care, the hood is removed from the side walls and the infant is warmed by means of heating radiators. Such hybrid devices are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,935, U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,499 and US 2010/0113864. The side walls protecting the infant have a height of, for example, 170 mm or 240 mm when the hood is opened in the commercially available devices. Access to the infant is thus rather unfavorable with the side walls closed and the hood opened, because the nursing care staff must reach into the patient area over the side walls or fold down the side walls in a cumbersome manner. The infant must not be left unsupervised at any time with the side walls folded down. One approach points in the direction of reducing the height of the side walls and of making available an additional volume through a high hood. However, this leads to a reduced freedom during working in closed nursing care (hood closed) with the side wall opened.
One approach towards solving the problem of accessibility is described in US 2010/0113864. A mechanism makes it possible to position the side walls in both a closed position and an opened position as well as in an intermediate position. The drawback of this solution is, however, that all side walls must be brought one by one into the intermediate position in order to gain good access to the infant from all sides. This may be very cumbersome in stress situations. Furthermore, a basically error-prone, expensive and bulky mechanism must be integrated in the patient bed.